You’ll love this super easy lingue di gatto recipe. Light and crunchy, these cute little cat tongue cookies are the perfect treat with coffee or ice cream!
Why We Love This
Lingue di gatto are deliciously thin and crispy Italian biscuits that bake in minutes. They’re delicately sweet and totally moreish – with the perfect crunch, we dare you to stop at just one!
All you need are easy pantry staples, and you can tweak the recipe to make it your own with lots of different flavour combinations.
Enjoy your freshly baked cat tongue cookies as a light snack on their own, or get creative and turn them into cookie sandwiches (like ginger kisses) with chocolate or jam and cream in the middle.
Related: Cantucci – Italian Almond Biscotti / Chewy Italian Almond Cookies
What is Lingue Di Gatto?
Lingue di gatto are a type of thin Italian biscuit or cookie made with egg whites, butter and icing sugar. The name translates as ‘tongue of the cat’, or ‘cat tongue cookies’.
Cat tongue cookies are said to have originated in Austria from the well known chocolate brand, Lindt. Their version was originally covered in chocolate, white the Italian and French versions (known as langue de chat) are not.
The thin wafer style biscuits are now popular across Europe – in particular France and Italy – and Asia including Japan and the Philippines. They’re enjoyed for breakfast or as a snack with coffee or tea.
We first learnt this lingue di gatto recipe in the Italian countryside, near the city of Bologna from Chef Roberta at a charming farmhouse homestay. She also taught us her amazing recipes for strawberry vanilla muffins!
What You’ll Need
- Egg Whites – For best results, use room-temperature eggs.
- Flour – Regular plain / all purpose flour.
- Icing Sugar – Aka powdered sugar. This super-fine sugar is essential to the smooth and crispy texture of the cookies, so we don’t recommend any other substitutes.
- Butter – Salted or unsalted both work fine, so use whichever you prefer.
- Vanilla Extract – Optional for extra flavour. Also known as vanilla essence in Australia.
How to make Lingue Di Gatto / Cat Tongue Cookies:
- Preheat your oven to 180˚C / 360˚F. Pop your softened butter into a large mixing bowl and add the icing sugar. Mix, mix, mix with a wooden spoon until creamed.
- Add half the egg whites and mix, then half the sifted flour and mix until combined. Repeat for the remaining egg whites, then the remaining flour, until you’ve got a soft, sweet and well mixed dough.
- Line a baking tray with baking paper and use a piping bag to pipe out your dough into 6-7 cm lengths, leaving plenty of space between each for the cookies to spread. Tip: You can make your own homemade piping bag using baking paper if you need – watch our recipe video where we show you how.
- Bake in the oven for around 5-8 minutes, but keep an eye on them and make sure you pull them out of the oven as soon as the edges turn golden brown. Transfer your cat tongue cookies to a cooling rack and allow to cool.
- Optional: Melt chocolate into a smooth paste, then dip one end of each cooled lingue di gatto cookie and pop aside to set.
Wandercook’s Tips
- Shape – For the best results, use a piping bag to pipe out the thin cookie batter into strips about 6-7cm / 2.5 in long. If you don’t have a real piping bag, you can make your own – see our recipe video for a quick demo. Don’t overfill your piping bag, use only around 2-3 scoops of the batter at a time.
- Spacing – Leave plenty of room for the cookies to spread out as they cook.
- Colour – Keep an eye on the biscuits as they cook. When they just start to brown, take them out of the oven and immediately transfer to a cooling rack. This way they’ll keep their delicious golden brown colour and crispy texture without becoming overcooked.
- Texture – For a softer result, bake for around 5 minutes only. For a crispier result, cook for 8-10 minutes until a rich golden brown.
- Storage – Cat tongue cookies will keep for up to a week in an airtight container, although they are known to lose their crispy snap of crunchiness within the first 24 hours. So the quicker you eat them, the better!
FAQs
In Italy and France, lingue di gatto cookies are traditionally enjoyed with espresso coffee or iced coffee, ice-cream or gelato. Why not pair them as a crunchy counterpart to chocolate mousse or fruit salad for dessert? You can also turn them into cookie sandwiches with melted chocolate, jam or cream in the middle, similar to matchsticks.
Don’t throw away those leftover egg yolks, they’re super useful! Bake up a batch of almond crescent cookies, add them to scrambled eggs or kewpie mayonnaise, or use them to make sweet shortcrust pastry for chester squares or pumpkin pie.
Variations
- Tweak the Flavour – Amp up your next batch of lingue di gatto with extra flavourings like almond extract, cinnamon, citrus zest, vanilla extract, maple syrup or even matcha green tea!
- Coat with Chocolate – Dip your freshly baked cat tongue cookies in melted chocolate. Make sure the chocolate has fully melted so the biscuits don’t break when trying to coat.
- Play with Shapes – These cookies are slightly bendable when you first take them out of the oven, so you could try bending them into twists and curls for a creative look.
More delicious baking fun to try next:
★ Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment and a star rating below!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 100 g butter softened
- 100 g icing sugar / powdered sugar 1 cup
- 3 egg whites divided into 2 portions
- 100 g plain flour / all purpose flour 3/4 cup, divided into 2 portions
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Optional:
- 100 g melting chocolate
Instructions
- First step is to preheat your oven to 180˚C / 360˚F.
- Pop your softened butter into a large mixing bowl and add the icing sugar. Mix, mix, mix with a wooden spoon until creamed.100 g butter, 100 g icing sugar / powdered sugar
- Add half the egg whites and mix, then half the sifted flour and mix until combined. Repeat for the remaining egg whites, then the remaining flour, until you’ve got a soft, sweet and well mixed dough. Add vanilla extract (or any other flavourings, if using) and give it one last stir.3 egg whites, 100 g plain flour / all purpose flour, 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Line a baking tray with baking paper and use a piping bag to pipe out your dough into 6-7 cm lengths, leaving plenty of space between each for the cookies to spread. Tip: You can make your own homemade piping bag using baking paper if you need – watch our recipe video where we show you how.
- Bake in the oven for around 5-8 minutes, but keep an eye on them and make sure you pull them out of the oven as soon as the edges turn golden brown. Transfer your cat tongue cookies to a cooling rack and allow to cool.
- Optional: Melt chocolate into a smooth paste, then dip one end of each cooled lingue di gatto cookie and pop aside to set.100 g melting chocolate
Video
Recipe Notes
- Egg Whites – For best results, use room-temperature eggs.
- Flour – Regular plain / all purpose flour.
- Icing Sugar – Aka powdered sugar. This super-fine sugar is essential to the smooth and crispy texture of the cookies, so we don’t recommend any other substitutes.
- Butter – Salted or unsalted both work fine, so use whichever you prefer.
- Vanilla Extract – Optional for extra flavour. Also known as vanilla essence in Australia.
- Shape – For the best results, use a piping bag to pipe out the thin cookie batter into strips about 6-7cm / 2.5 in long. If you don’t have a real piping bag, you can make your own – see our recipe video for a quick demo. Don’t overfill your piping bag, use only around 2-3 scoops of the batter at a time.
- Spacing – Leave plenty of room for the cookies to spread out as they cook.
- Colour – Keep an eye on the biscuits as they cook. When they just start to brown, take them out of the oven and immediately transfer to a cooling rack. This way they’ll keep their delicious golden brown colour and crispy texture without becoming overcooked.
- Texture – For a softer result, bake for around 5 minutes only. For a crispier result, cook for 8-10 minutes until a rich golden brown.
- Storage – Cat tongue cookies will keep for up to a week in an airtight container, although they are known to lose their crispy snap of crunchiness within the first 24 hours. So the quicker you eat them, the better!
- Tweak the Flavour – Amp up your next batch of lingue di gatto with extra flavourings like almond extract, cinnamon, citrus zest, vanilla extract, maple syrup or even matcha green tea!
- Coat with Chocolate – Dip your freshly baked cat tongue cookies in melted chocolate. Make sure the chocolate has fully melted so the biscuits don’t break when trying to coat.
- Play with Shapes – These cookies are slightly bendable when you first take them out of the oven, so you could try bending them into twists and curls for a creative look.
Nutrition
22 Comments
Meredith
27/07/2022 at 9:42 amLove these- so easy!
Wandercooks
01/08/2022 at 9:07 amThat’s awesome Meredith, thanks for letting us know!
Nha
03/12/2016 at 4:47 pmLove how simple this recipe is, but mine didn’t turn out crispy at all. In fact, they were chewy :(. Any ideas why?
Wandercooks
05/12/2016 at 8:59 amHey Nha, hmmm let’s see. How much dough did you pipe out onto your tray? Perhaps there was too much and they became too thick, and didn’t cook all the way through? Try using a really thin tip on your piping bag and aim for 1 cm thick strips of dough and see how that goes. Good luck, and let us know if you need any more help! 🙂
Marsha
27/11/2016 at 1:41 amI’m not a baker..but would love to try these,
what is a cookers pipe ?
Wandercooks
28/11/2016 at 12:21 pmHey Marsha, you’re looking for a piping bag like this one ( <- p.s. that's an affiliate link. 🙂 ) They help you form the thin little strip of dough to create the cookies. In a pinch if you don't have a piping bag, you can cut the corner off a clean/unused sandwich bag and use that to squeeze out the dough into shape, although they're not as durable so it might break. But definitely a handy hack to keep in mind if you don't have a piping bag available!
Jenni
09/11/2016 at 12:08 pmLove these cookies! They are so delicious!! Love the soft yet crunchy texture!
Wandercooks
10/11/2016 at 11:36 amTotally agree Jenni! Love having these with our tea or coffee while we work. The perfect little snack. 😀
Platter Talk
09/11/2016 at 11:24 amThose little gems are right up my ally!!! I would like them dipped or plain. ( :
Wandercooks
10/11/2016 at 11:38 amAwesome to hear! And yep, totally agreed. We did the test dip, and I think tea is currently in the lead for us!
Michelle @ Vitamin Sunshine
09/11/2016 at 11:13 amThose dipped in chocolate would be amazing! What a great little treat next to a cappuccino 🙂
Wandercooks
10/11/2016 at 5:00 pmOr IN the cappuccino! 😉
Heather @Boston Girl Bakes
09/11/2016 at 3:20 amSimplicity in baking sometimes yields just the tastiest results! And I totally would have dunked them in chocolate too 🙂
Wandercooks
10/11/2016 at 5:00 pmHere here Heather!
Elizabeth
08/11/2016 at 7:39 pmHow beautiful and delicate are these?! And dipped into that chocolate – perfection!!!
Wandercooks
10/11/2016 at 4:59 pmDelicate’s a great word actually! There’s nothing quite like it’s super thin, crispy, sweet goodness. ESPECIALLY with chocolate!
Cristie | Little Big H
08/11/2016 at 1:27 pm4 ingredients – bonus! I’m so making these and dipping them into a big bowl of chocolate – yum.
Wandercooks
10/11/2016 at 4:57 pmSounds like a very good plan! 😀
Martin @ The Why Chef
04/11/2016 at 5:12 pmI’m making these! Proper show off food when you have guests round and you serve them up with their coffee! 😀
Wandercooks
04/11/2016 at 5:41 pmWoo hoo, get dipping Martin. They’re so good with coffee!
Marisa Franca @ All Our Way
04/11/2016 at 7:02 amCat’s Tongue — that’s what lingue di gatto means. If nothing else Italian’s have colorful names for their dishes. I’ve never heard of these cookies but there are so many regions and recipes in Italy. I’m definitely making them. Thank you for sharing.
Wandercooks
04/11/2016 at 5:39 pmYou’re welcome Marisa, I can’t wait for you to try them. Let us know how they turn out! 🙂 x